Fernandez and Marino advance to the main draw

(Abu Dhabi) Canadians Leylah Fernandez and Rebecca Marino earned their ticket to the main draw at the Abu Dhabi Tennis Open on Monday.

Fernandez took an hour and 25 minutes to defeat Ukraine’s Katarina Zavatska 6-1, 6-4 in the second qualifying round. As for Marino, she took the measure of the Belgian Ysaline Bonaventure 6-1, 6-4 in 64 short minutes.

Fernando, 38^e in the WTA rankings, lacked consistency, especially in the second run. She also finished the game with five double faults, against only one for her Ukrainian rival, and converted only four of her 10 break points against her.

The second seed in the qualifying table, however, had seven aces, and only conceded two to Zavatska. In addition, she won 72% of the points after lodging her first ball in play, against barely 62% for the one who points to 289^e global level.

As for Marino, 70^e in the world, she scored an impressive 10 aces against a single double fault, she won 81% of the points after placing her first serve in play and having three breaks of service in as many attempts against Bonaventure.

Three Canadians will therefore be part of the main draw in Abu Dhabi: Fernandez, Marino and Ontario’s Bianca Andreescu.

In the first round on Tuesday, Fernandez will face American Shelby Rogers, while Marino will face China’s Qinwen Zheng. For her part, Andreecu will face the Kazakh Yulia Putintseva.